Group Protests Salina Huckabee Event

KSAL Staff - January 29, 2014 6:29 pm

A group of Salinans gathered Wednesday evening to protest an upcoming event in which Mike Huckabee be the featured speaker. Members of “Saline County Citizens for Responsible Government” gathered during the 5:00 hour in front of the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce office on Ash Street with signs.

Former Arkansas Governor, current political commentator, and potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee will be the guest speaker at the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce annual meeting and banquet. Huckabee has been criticized by some for a recent statement he made at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting.

Huckabee said “our party stands for the recognition of the equality of women and the capacity of women. That’s not a war on them. It’s a war for them. And if the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control, because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it.”

Janice Norlin of Salina helped to organize the peaceful protest Wednesday evening. She tells KSAL News that she is concerned about the “disrespectful comments made by Mr. Huckabee toward women.” She says that she doesn’t see how asking and paying him to speak promotes the Salina chamber’s mission statement of “business, professional, and individual people working together to make the Salina community a better place to live and work.” Norlin urges the chamber to rescind the invitation to Huckabee, and if the organization doesn’t, she urges those who have ticket to ask for a refund.

Norlin says that her group is planning a counter Huckabee-event at the same time as the Huckabee speech in Salina. It will be at Martinelli’s restaurant in Downtown Salina. The counter event will feature dinner, entertainment, and “an open microphone and open minds.” Norli says “We will talk about the real concerns in the Salina community, and where the chamber should be putting their energy and money rather than in a divisive outside speaker.”

Dennis Lauver from the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce was unavailable for comment Wednesday evening.

Mike Huckabee will speak at the Salina Bicentennial Center on Thursday, February 6th.

Would Mrs. Norlin please expound on the “disrespectful comments made by Mr. Huckabee toward women”? If she is basing her decision on the comments by the two women who tweeted the statements that Mr. Huckabee was being disrespectful towards women, then she may want to follow-up and see that the women retracted their statements.

I love this, folks if you don’t like a t.v. show, you change the channel right? Well, if you don’t want to hear Huckabee, don’t go and don’t violate someone’s else’s right to go. I must add, I am not in agreement with some things that the Governor has said. But, when it comes to your protesting on what Huckabee said, make sure you have the facts and everything is taken in context. Let’s be objective and listen to everything he has said before you look off base.

If Mr. Huckabee comes to town on the roads that the taxpayers built, protected by the police department that the taxpayers pay for, using the facilities (assuming he does such humanly things) bought, buried, inspected and sanitized with taxpayer funds, in a state still in the union and protected by the US constitution, then surely a US citizen has every right to protest his appearance. As well, this right applies to all of those in Salina that object to Mr. Huckabee’s ideals, some arguably theocratic, that he hopes to execute from the highest office. More to the point, those in Salina “can’t change the channel” because those with political power own the TV, listen to nobody and have hidden the remote. To mention facts and Huckabee in the same comment, surely takes some imagination! Besides, if Mr. Huckabee wanted us to know the facts, why did he destroy all of the records and hard drives from his 12 years as the Gov. of Arkansas? Just trying to be objective; does Mr. Huckabee listen to everything anybody says? Besides his boss at FOX? What I love, is that there are actually people that will speak out against the plutocratic and misogynistic direction of Kansas and US politics/gov’t policy. Mr. Huckabee is obviously being given an opportunity not given to very many others! Do we really need another opportunity to hear a rerun of one person’s personal belief system?